Jackal 101
by Fareetauhl
Summary: In which Jackal is sent to tutor his daughter in magic, and Lucy cannot escape the feeling that something is going to go horribly wrong.


**AN: Thank you to** **howlingwolvesonfire** **for giving me this idea! I hope I did your prompt justice!**

 **With that acknowledgement, onto my first Jackal x Lucy fic ever!**

Jackal took a deep breath in.

This wasn't going to be hard. He could handle this.

He could successfully teach his daughter to master her power.

The bright brown eyes of his 6 year old daughter stared up at him expectantly. Layla Heartfilia, while looking exactly like both her namesake and her mother (seriously, would brown eyes, blonde hair, and a button nose always be dominant in the Heartfilia line?), was her complete opposite in personality and magic.

Lucy's magic and personality were calm, but as bright as the stars she used.

Layla…was as explosive as Jackal.

Literally. She may have gotten her mother's looks, but everything else was all Jackal. Including, unfortunately, her magic.

Which meant Jackal had to teach her how to control it, since apparently his wife did not appreciate their house blowing up for the fifth time after her latest tantrum.

So that was what brought them to where they were now. Outside the ruins of their house, while Lucy had sought refuge in Natsu and Lisanna's home (he didn't know why, Natsu and his brat were just as explosive as Jackal).

Swallowing, Jackal collected his thoughts (yes, he was capable of thinking, no matter what his damn ruler thought), and began thinking of the right way to teach her.

He could do this. He just had to approach this topic well.

"Alright sweetheart. This random use of magic has to stop. Your mother gets upset every time our house is destroyed, and, well, she wants you to learn how to stop this."

Big brown eyes stared back at him mournfully. "But Daddy, you blow stuff up all the time! Mama never complains when you do it! Why can't I?"

Jackal snorted. As if. Every time he accidently blew something up, Lucy was all over him like ugly on an ape (whatever that meant), screaming, lecturing, and scolding him to oblivion. Right before she Lucy kicked him, of course.

Jackal winced. Yelling was all fine and well, but when Lucy brought her kicks out, things got serious.

Shaking his head to clear it of the frankly terrifying path his mind was continuing on, he turned back to his daughter. "Trust me- she doesn't like it when I do it either. Tell you what, if you learn this right, then you and I can just take a job together, and we can blow everything up then. Explosions the size of Magnolia. How does that sound?"

Layla cheered, her pigtails bouncing as she jumped up and down. "That sounds great Daddy!"

Jackal flinched as he heard some of the rubble behind him explode. Looks like this was going to be even harder than he thought.

"Alright, let's get started. First, I want you to focus on you magic. Try to centralize it into a big ball near that bush over there. Can you do that?"

His little girl nodded, scrunching her face and clenching her fists as she focused.

"Now, I want you to hold the energy there in place for a minute. Don't let it detonate no matter what. I promise, this explosion will be bigger than if you just let it go now."

Layla concentrated; sweat beginning to appear on her forehead. She frowned a little, but resisted the urge to blow it up. Finally, after one minute was over, she let it blow up, in a hailstorm of smoke and fire. She cheered. "I did it Daddy!"

Jackal let out a sigh of relief. This was a piece of cake. "Good girl! Now, for our next practice…"

He frowned. Lucy had told him to teach Layla to control her power, but she hadn't specified the way to do it. But surely if he used higher stakes to teach her control, his daughter would learn her power faster! After all, that's how Jackal had trained. He grinned. Lucy was going to love him after this, he was sure.

Layla frowned. "What am I going to blow up next Daddy?"

Jackal smirked, his somewhat tamed pyromaniac senses coming back full force. "Don't worry sweetheart, I know the perfect place."

After all, where better to practice not blowing stuff up, then in Mercurius, the place with the most area to practice in? The trip would definitely be worth it.

He couldn't wait to see Lucy's reaction.

Omake:

Lucy sneezed again violently. She frowned. Had it really been the best ideas to let her crazy, bomber, explosive pyro of a husband teach their daughter magic? After all, Lucy really could have taught her herself, even though they shared different magic. Control was something that all mages needed to know after all. But then, she would have to view her daughter's pleading brown eyes, explain the countless damages that would follow their practices, scrounge up the jewel needed to cover the cost…

She shuddered. No, she was definitely better off here, safe from all blame, and away from the site of destruction. Besides, her husband had settled down and learned to control his pyromania. Surely he could handle educating their daughter, who had the same magic, in the proper way to use it. Lucy would have only gotten in the way.

And yet, she couldn't escape the lurking feeling that she had done something horribly wrong in letting this happen. Frowning, she took another sip of her tea, and then ignored her uneasiness in favor of hearing Lisanna ramble more about all the things Igneel had broken that week. Her husband was a grown man, capable of handling himself and their daughter. He wouldn't do anything stupid.

She hoped.

 **AN: Yup, this is definitely going to be a two or three-shot, with the next chapters featuring their visit and all the mayhem that occurs…because you can't ever really tame Jackal.**

 **Anyways, read and review to let me know what you think! I'm officially out of my depressed slump, because I finally have my break! I should be updating more often this week to celebrate.**

 **Next up, a modern AU suggested by EmpressofEverything!**

 **If you guys have any other ideas too, feel free to let me know! I'll do my best to make them happen!**

 **See you soon!**

 **-Fareetauhl**


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